Potential
Rotary Leadership Seminars
History and Origins
In
1993, successive District 5240 Governors noticed an increasing
unwillingness to step into club and District leadership positions.
An informal survey revealed there was a large decrease in numbers
of those who had received basic leadership instruction as members
of the U.S. Armed Forces. An increasing percentage of Rotarians,
therefore, lacked even the basic leadership skills formerly learned
by all adult males over the age of 18 in basic training, boot
camp or OCS. Our Rotarians were becoming unwilling to accept
positions of responsibility because those leadership skills were
nowhere in their past experience. Neither was instruction in
such skills generally available in the communities in which the
majority of our Rotarians lived and worked. First conceived by
District Governor Jim Johannsen in 1992, the project was started
under the direction of then-DGND James V. Hawkins and was introduced
at the April 1993 District 5240 Assembly in Bakersfield. Three
of the then-nine modules were taught that first day with 163
Rotarians in attendance. PRLS’ goal was and is to provide
a set of training sessions wherein current and future Rotary
leaders could learn to become more effective in their leadership
roles. The program is designed to encourage those whose goals
include a basic comfort with a leadership position. Every subject
but one is intended to be of benefit either inside or outside
Rotary. We know, of course, that we don’t get instant leaders
out of these hours of classroom instruction. But we know also
that something is better than nothing, and that we can at least
introduce leadership skills to incoming Rotary leaders before
they pick up the gavel every July 1st. PRLS doesn’t teach
incoming leaders everything there is to know about their new
role. But it does lead them on to investigate other sources of
information which might, in turn, prepare them even more to carry
off their leadership jobs with more efficiency, charisma and
aplomb.
Since
that beginning, over six hundred Rotarians have attended at least
one four-hour session, with 1072 (as of 1/16/05) having completed
the entire basic course. Graduates of the basic PRLS sessions
receive a diploma and a Rotary pin with a pearl center. Their
names are published in the newsletter for PRLS graduates, “The
Strand” and on the PRLS website.
The basic PRLS program now includes seven hours of classroom instruction
spread among:
Public Speaking
Rotary, Your Club and You
Leadership Tools For Success
Leading a Meeting
Communications
In addition to the basic subjects, there are five units in a
Master PRLS program:
A full day of extemporaneous public speaking exercises. (MPRLS
1)
A full day of preplanned public speaking exercises. (MPRLS
2)
A full day of committee facilitation skills and group goal
setting exercises. (MPRLS 3)
A full day of Situational Leadership concept identification,
understanding and skills development. (MPRLS 4)
A full day of business model planning and project management
skills development and exercises. (MPRLS 5)
As of January, 2005, there are 258
Master PRLS graduates, each of whom has received a calligraphied
diploma and a specially designed Rotary pin with a pearl center
combined with a “Master” pendant.
The Bottom Line
Ten years of experience have resulted in the following:
a. The clubs with the most PRLS
graduates are those who lead the district in nearly all categories
of excellence: membership growth, foundation giving, initiation
of new projects, growth in the availability of future leaders,
attendance at the Assembly and Conference.
b. Attendance
at the District Assembly has increased fifty percent.
c. Attendance
at the District Conference has increased fifty percent.
d.
There are more, better candidates for both club and district
leadership positions.
e. The District Rotarians of the Year
for the past seven years have all been Master PRLS graduates,
BUT WITHOUT MAKING THAT A CRITERIA FOR SELECTION.
The program isn’t perfect, and may never reach perfection.
The instructors review their individual sessions after each presentation,
making such changes and improvements as appear to be necessary.
Considering, though, that most units have been given perhaps
fifty times each, changes are now less drastic and much fewer
in number.
Using the graduates for other Rotary purposes seems to energize
each of them significantly. It means, among other things, that
they step into immediate leadership roles before (in some cases)
actually assuming club positions. And as PRLS instructors and members
of the speaking teams they come to know quite a few other people
around the District. This makes it easier to fund individual club
international service projects, and to exchange information concerning
programs and community projects.
It may be the fellowship of PRLS that causes it, but those who
attend meet other people. We think that knowing more people from
other clubs makes it easier to decide in favor of attending District
events. Though we like to think that our Assembly and Conference
attendance is way up because they’re better prepared, publicized
and presented, there is some reasonable supposition that it’s
the increased PRLS fellowship that causes the increases. We do
not, of course, know that for sure.
Club leadership has improved drastically. Every sitting District
Governor says that it is apparent during the club visits just which
presidents had been through PRLS.
a. We’ve noticed that goals and objectives are being
identified earlier in the planning cycle for most of those
incoming presidents who are PRLS graduates.
b. The Mid-Term
Seminars, led by Master PRLS 3 graduates, receive rave reviews
from everyone any of us have spoken to since we first held
them in January, 1996. Without Master PRLS 3, these seminars
could not have been held.
Apart from the general personal value of PRLS leadership instruction,
we’re able to identify potential leaders a lot sooner than
ever before. I think it’s safe to say that those who go to
the effort of attending PRLS are those most interested in Rotary,
and are therefore those who would probably rise to leadership positions
without the PRLS instruction. The fact remains, though, that they
appear to have gotten something out of the instruction, and the
clubs appear to be better led. It might be too much of a jump to
assume that PRLS is the proximate cause, but we’ve done nothing
else new that would account for the changes we’ve seen.
